It wasn’t until shortly after his death that Karl Marx’s ideology began to significantly influence socialist movements. Although relatively unknown during his lifetime he has become one of the fundamental economic and sociological figures of the modern era. Many of his theories and insights into the way society functions are still relevant in the expanding capitalist society that exists today. Marx was very critical of capitalism and the division in society between the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes, attempting to highlight the injustice and exploitation of the working class by the wealthy upper and middle class. Marx predicted that capitalism within a socioeconomic system would inevitably create internal tensions between social classes leading to its demise and replacement by a new system, communism.
Durkheim sees anomie as responsible for the world’s disorder of economics- the lack of morality and regulation resulted in overpowering the weak; thus, he feels that only norms can prevent the abuse of power and calls for regulation and equal opportunity from birth- the greater the equal opportunity the less need for restraint. Marx looked at how capitalism separated humanity by making work a simple means of individual existence. In addition he describes society in terms of class and economic conflicts. Marx saw proletariat or people of a working class as being underneath the bourgeoisie or the capitalist of a modern society. Marx looked at how alienation of production of commodities by workers also leads to alienation of social life.
Through this we have learned that as working class, we expect and accept that we will be exploited by the ruling class in terms of our surplus value. This is known as a crisis of Hegemony. They go on to say that we have internalised the DVS to such an extent that any other value system seems absurd, resulting in a state of false class consciousness. Marx believed that we will see a social revolution which will overthrow capitalism and replace it with true communism. Marxism sees religion as a feature which is only relevant in a society based on class division I.E the ruling classes and the working classes.
The class struggle’s which Marx refers to above is that of the Bourgeoisie, who own the means of production and the proletariat, who sell their labour. Marx believed that the two classes are based on a contradiction, this ascends from the fact that the workers who make the commodities do not get the profit that is made. Instead the profit goes to the Bourgeoisie, over time
Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess different Marxist views of the relationship between crime and social class. Traditional Marxism sees capitalist society as divided into two classes: the ruling capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the working class (or proletariat), who’s alienated labour the bourgeoisie exploit to produce profit. Marxism is a structural theory. It sees society as a structure in which the economic base (the capitalist economy) determines the shape of the superstructure, which is made up of all the other social institutions, including the state, the law and the criminal justice system. Their function is to serve ruling-class interests and maintain the capitalist economy.
According to Marx – in a capitalist society, the economic relationship of exploitation requires ideologies in the superstructure to cover up inequality – they are not innocent/neutral because they justify inequality and serve the interest of powerful groups. Marx argued that the organisation of production in a society shapes the nature of society – refers to this as base/superstructure. The base of the infrastructure is the economy – determines the ideas of society and superstructure – social, cultural, political and ideological parts of society. All history can be divided into five epochs/period; primitive consumerism – everything is shared, in class
Some of the events that led up to this included the replacing of labor with machines and the need by the factory owners to reduce costs. Writers in the Marxist perspective of sociology claim that there is a conspiracy in the education system designed to prevent children from working class backgrounds from realizing their true position in society this can be referred to as the hidden curriculum. The education system reinforces the ideology that the rich and powerful should control society and promotes an ideology or belief that our society is fair and just and that the proletariat should quietly accept capitalist society. In Advanced Industrial Societies the mains relationships are those of work. These are known as the
I shall asses points for and against this argument and conclude. Karl Marx (a Marxist sociologist) believes that the education system preforms two main functions in a capitalist society. Firstly, Marx believes the education system reproduces the inequalities and social relations of production of capitalist society. In contrast, the government claim that the education system provides equality and education to all which surely would not serve to maintain a capitalist society. Marx’s first point suggests that education surely does not provide equality, this is for reasons being that education is a meritocratic institution that only benefits the student which conform with the desired qualities, such as doing as they are told and being high academic achievers.
Socialist believe that as capitalism has fostered competitive and selfish behaviour, human inequality very largely reflects the unequal structure of society. They believe that the most significant forms of human inequality are as a result of unequal treatment of society, rather than unequal endowment of nature. Thus, socialists do not wish to just provide individuals with an equal opportunity to develop themselves, but rather demand social equality. All socialists argue that a major factor of the social inequality in society is the lack of economic equality due to capitalism. Socialists have often traced this inequality in society to the institution of private property.
Marxists see society as based on unequal class conflict between the two social classes; the capitalist class, who owns the means of production and the working class whose labour the capitalists exploit for mere profit and power. Marxists have identified several functions that they see the family as fulfilling all for the needs for capitalism. One of these functions the Marxists believes keeps society in a ruling class ideology is the inheritance of property. The key factor, according to Marxists, in shaping society is the mode of production which includes who controls and owns societies as well as productive forces such as tools, machinery, raw materials, land and labour. Karl Marx stated that the earliest, classless society was almost “primitive communism” where there was no private property and all members of society owned the means of production communally.